Advisory: media invited to hear, interview world religious leader William E. Swing

Swing, who founded URI in 1993 as an interfaith organization dedicated to promoting daily and enduring interactions among all of the world’s religions, spiritual expressions and indigenous traditions, will discuss his thoughts and views on how people of different global faith traditions can talk and embrace one another. With the ongoing war in Iraq, Swing says this is a crucial time for various world religious leaders to open lines of communication.

“In the United States of America, we have been accustomed to wars of one country versus another,” Swing says. “We are at a unique time in history where some people are interpreting this war as a war that has a religious dimension. It appears to many to be a war that pits Christian and Jewish West against Muslim East. Is there a religious war that has been on sabbatical for 300 years that is emerging again and is an inevitable clash between the two largest religions, Christianity and Islam, or are there some alternatives to war?”

Swing has traveled around the world to places like China, Japan, Korea, India, the Middle East and Europe, among others, on a quest for guidance and commitment from world religious leaders such as the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, Pope John Paul II, the shankaracharya of Kancheepuram, Islam’s grand mufti in Cairo, and the archbishop of Canterbury. The visits were made in an attempt to secure support for the concept of a permanent forum where all the world’s religions will be represented.

To date, Swing and his organization have been successful at securing the membership of more than 15,000 individuals in 47 countries, representing more than 88 religions, spiritual expressions and indigenous traditions. Members participate in self-organizing “Cooperation Circles” around the world that are primarily comprised of seven people or more from at least three religions. There are more than 200 circles, including active groups in Asheville and Black Mountain.